My Auto-Buy Authors

You know those authors. They announce they’re publishing a new book and, without even knowing what it’s about, you count down the days until you can run to Barnes and Noble and buy it. No matter the story, you MUST have that book. These are the authors you trust.

Here are my auto-buy authors:

1. Sarah Dessen (The Moon and More, This Lullaby, The Truth About Forever). I can count on her for solid female narrators, secondary characters with colorful personalities, and plots I can reach out and touch. They feel real. Much of what I know about writing internal conflict, I learned from reading Sarah's books. I own all of them, and SAINT ANYTHING is my most anticipated book of 2015! 

2. John Green (The Fault in Our Stars, Looking For Alaska). Snarky humor and stories that make me think, question, and reevaluate my point of view. So far, he's published a great mix of funny books and sad ones. I can't wait to read whatever he comes up with next!

3. Jandy Nelson (I'll Give You The Sun, The Sky is Everywhere). New to my auto-buy list. After I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN, I would read that woman’s grocery lists. Any piece of paper her words touch, gimmie! Lush prose and imagery, complex and well thought out characters, emotional resonance. I read I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN twice in four months while writing my thesis. It never ceases to inspire me! 

4. Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire). I’ll be testing my auto-buy tendency with her in May, when her new series A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES launches. I’m so enthralled by THRONE OF GLASS, and I can’t wait for more well-developed high fantasy with action and delicious character development. I used to consider myself someone who was easily overwhelmed by high fantasy, but after reading Sarah's books, I've learned that I love it!

5. Cassandra Clare (City of Bones, Clockwork Angel). This is cheating a little bit, because she has a few books I haven’t bought (like THE IRON TRIAL, which she co-wrote with Holly Black), but I’m game for anything set in her Shadowhunter world like THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS and THE INFERNAL DEVICES. I love her humor and talent for world building in the urban fantasy subgenre. I've been reading her books since high school, and every time I pick up CITY OF BONES, I'm eighteen again (in a good way).  

How about you? Whose books do you automatically buy?

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS poster (and my SICK obsession with it)

YES, I said "sick" in the post title to reference the tagline that has so many TFIOS fans up in arms. John Green announced the release of the first THE FAULT IN OUR STARS movie poster during his Project For Awesome fundraiser/webcast on December 18. For a $25 donation, you could buy one of the posters (which I totally did).

Here is the poster if you haven't already seen/cried over it:

 

 

First of all, I think it's STUNNING. Shailene and Ansel are really becoming Hazel and Augustus in my head now, which is exciting for me. I also love that they kept the same font and colors as the book cover, and this picture will look great on the movie tie-in edition of the book which will undoubtedly happen before the movie comes out. And I also really like the fact that Hazel's cannula/oxygen tube is featured on the poster. They didn't try to "pretty up" the plot and smooth over the fact that she has incurable cancer. I think that says a lot, especially in a culture where we photoshop perfectly beautiful people before we feature them on magazine covers.

 

The main thing a lot of people have a problem with, though, is the tagline: ONE SICK LOVE STORY. I admit, I cringed when I first saw it and had the, "Really, Hollywood? Cancer puns? Really?" But then I started thinking about it, and John Green posted his opinion on his blog, and I understood. The sarcasm is in the same vein as Hazel's narration. She and Augustus and Isaac joke about their cancer throughout the book (Hazel says her lungs "sucked at being lungs," for example), and they all have a dark humor about them.

 

I think the tagline would be something that Hazel would say on a whim, and Augustus would grin (his real smile, the one too big for his face). I think the two of them would like the tagline.